Saw the judge the next morning and I'll never forget what he said. "Mr. Stapleton, you're 27 years old, drive a truck for UPS right? , you have never been in any trouble and have never even had as much as a speeding ticket."
"Would that be correct?"
To which I replied "that is correct".
He said "I don't feel like you belong in jail, get outta here and in 2 weeks we will get this sorted out."
Came back in 2 weeks and he threw it out and sent me on my way.
I haven't been back.
That judge had probably never used UPS for a important delivery before.
Had a coworker several years ago that got arrested when he was 22YO. His mother refused to bail him out and he spent 30 days in jail. He told me sat on his bunk and did awhole lot of thinking and realized that he nobody to blame but himself for the situation that he was in. Said it was the best thing his mom ever did for him by leaving him in there.
Never been myself Managed to make it 6+ decades without even having felt the bracelets
Heroin boy across at grandma's has been to county numerous times without number and to the big house 4 that I know of Seems to be a badge of honor with him. Thousands of useless **stards just like him all over
Yes. Spent 4 years at a Catholic boarding school. Nuns on the guard towers while others patrolling were the perimeter with German Shepherds. And then again 10 years ago or so DUI.
Now that my LE career is completely behind me I can say this w/o repercussions from the administrators who did not seem to understand the difference that sometimes you need to see the grey in the "black and white" of the law.
There were more than a few times I saw situations where it appeared that something got spun out of control and a good person who normally would never have any contact with LE outside of speeding or some trivial nonsense had things snowball and ended up getting charged with whatever. These were not bad people. It was just a cascading series of events due to relationships or dumb things. What they were NOT was the 5% of society that takes up 95% of law enforcements time (normally)
Anyways, I have on more than a few occasions violated all manner of policies. Not handcuffing certain people until I got right to the jail. These people were zero threat and did not need a 30 mile ride in cuffs, but had to be walked in in cuffs, so I would pull over a block before the jail and slip them into the cuffs. Then take them straight into an area to get bonded out and skipping all the steps in between, and even calling a local public defender (guys and gals I had a good working relationship with)for them so they didn't say or do something even more damaging to their situation. A little "off the books" advice on how both sides work, so they could make smart choices.
Basically walking them through a system so they would not get eaten alive. Plus they had no business being in a holding cell with a bunch of thugs anyways.
The world is not black and white and a 45 year old guy/gal or 65 year old grandmother who has no criminal record should not be treated like a 30 year old with 15 prior arrests in the last 5 years.
Thank you MS for stepping up.
I'm "older" but just last year went to Police Academy and POST qualified (Got the class guidon too), and appreciate the long-timers in the world I have entered. Lots of wisdom there.
All have contributions, though.
If you're just starting out in LE you are either mental or hate yourself. I honestly can't believe people keep applying for such an awful profession.
If I wasn't halfway to retirement I'd go scrub schietters at wally world instead.
Never been, but I am planning on going to jail or possibly the state pen. Lots of noise in California about putting either a flat tax or water meter on domestic and household water wells. Remsen has offered to represent me, I haven't sent him a retainer yet, but he is still in the California Bar. I am not making threats, but we shall see what transpires, I feel strongly about domestic water, basic human needs.
I hope your first stop is to aerate Newsom’s head.
I’ll help with Remsen’s retainer fee.
🦫
Curiosity Killed the Cat & The Prairie Dog “Molon Labe”
Saw the judge the next morning and I'll never forget what he said. "Mr. Stapleton, you're 27 years old, drive a truck for UPS right? , you have never been in any trouble and have never even had as much as a speeding ticket."
"Would that be correct?"
To which I replied "that is correct".
He said "I don't feel like you belong in jail, get outta here and in 2 weeks we will get this sorted out."
Came back in 2 weeks and he threw it out and sent me on my way.
I haven't been back.
That judge had probably never used UPS for a important delivery before.
Don't know and didn't care. I can tell you however in my 10 year career as a driver I only ever had one Late Next Day Air. And by late i mean it was due at 12:00 and I didn't make it there until 12:05. Still got a warning letter for it.
In 1977 I was released from 13 years of incarceration at Hermon-DeKalb Central School. Does that count?
You've paid the price. I have a couple grandkids still doing time there.
People with the typical outsider's idea of what New York is like would be flabbergasted to see the part of New York we're from.
Way to many don't even know there is actually a large portion of the state that's not a city.
When I moved to eastern Washington in 1981 I was shocked by how many there had no idea that New York was a state and not just a city.
The North Country was a great place to grow up. We were on a dairy farm surrounded by woods and other dairy farms. It really was kind of remote back then. Some of the streams I trapped went through some old forests that I doubt had seen a human foot print in over fifty years. Maybe longer.
My grandfather owned a farm near Heuvelton that had one of the most phenomenal duck marshes in the county. And I was the only one hunting it.
I miss the Northern New York of my youth.
Chronographs, bore scopes and pattern boards have broke a lot of hearts.
Pharmacist in Jackson Ms, bad area. Quite a few instances of fighting shoplifters, chasing them down, gunpoint, etc.
Last time. about 2003. about age 40. It was a Wednesday evening about 5pm. Very busy. Guy came in and stole about $400+ in merchandise. Customer told me. I grab my 357 and took off out the door. He was a block ahead of me. Jumped in the truck, and after red lights I caught up with him on the frontage road of hwy 80. I sped up, rolled down the window and locked the brakes up beside him. Scared him white. I jumped out, he took off running. I'm after him, but forgot the revolver on the seat. Twisted me knee, hurt like crap. He stopped in front of another business. I got close to him and demanded my stuff back and if he ran I'd hurt him bad because my knee was hurting. He took off again but ran between 2 parked cars that were pulled up tight to a brick wall. Nowhere to go. I casually walked up and told him to give the stuff back. He said "NO, what are you going to do anyway>?" My response, "I'm gonna break your face" But, I wanted him to swing first so I would have the right to hit him many times. So, I said some unkind things about him and his family.
He tried a very slow (think calendar time) roundhouse. I moved my head back to miss it and stepped forward with a strong right hand. He fell back on the wall and slid down. He was out, but I sat on his chest and beat him in the forehead until a guy I did not know came up behind me and called my name and said, "Stop, you're going to go to prison if you keep hitting him."
I came to my senses stood up. I looked to my left and 100 yds away were 3 similarly pigmented people to the perp. One was on a cell phone and they were yelling at me. I assumed the cops were on their way. I was a mile from the pharmacy, which made me a vigilante looking at a felony. I look to the right and the guy that stopped me that I did not know, but called me by name was nowhere in sight. He had just vanished.
The perp is waking up and looks up at me. I thought quickly and said, "Those people over there are calling the police, do you want to be here when they get here?" He said "no". And I said, "you better get out of here then."\ When he stood up he had a 2-3 inch gash on his forehead that squirted blood a foot or more each heartbeat. He took off running.
I went back to the store and call my chairman of deacons (at the 1st church I pastored) and said, "I may not make it to preach tonight". he asked "why?" I responded "because I am probably about to be arrested".
I told him the store. I called the pharmacy owner next. and waited for the police that never showed up. 1 hour drive to church. I felt like God whispered in my ear "If you continue responding in anger this way, you may just start a prison ministry from the inside." That was the last felonious assault I participated in.
Who was the guy that stopped me? i don't know. How long would I have kept hitting the guy if I wasn't stopped? I don't know, I was hitting him in blind anger. I've always had a temper when it came to thieves, etc. , but I called it "righteous anger".
My grandfather spent several years in the state pen for stabbing a guy in a card game. My dad told me that the guy grampa stabbed would never have died if he had gotten proper medical treatment.
I had to remind dad that the guy wouldn’t have needed “proper medical treatment” if grampa hadn’t stabbed him…
No, I have not. I knew what the price of admission was and I didn't like the looks of the environment either. I'll add that at some point early in life, (probably before I reached the age of 10) I was watching a tv show with my Dad and the plot had something to do with teenagers getting put in jail. My Dad commented that if I ever went to jail, he would never bail me out. He also told me that if I ever did anything to warrant jail time, a jail cell would be a picnic compared to what he would do to me when I got out. I listened.
No, I have not. I knew what the price of admission was and I didn't like the looks of the environment either. I'll add that at some point early in life, (probably before I reached the age of 10) I was watching a tv show with my Dad and the plot had something to do with teenagers getting put in jail.
I spent a night in the county lockup about 2 months after I moved out of my folks’ place and went to trade school.
DUI, Minor in possession of alcohol, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Dad’s rule was have fun as long as nobody goes to jail, no drugs, and nobody get pregnant. Any of these rules are broken you’re on your own. So I knew better than to make that late night phone call and called my roommate instead. He took up a collection and came and sprung me the next morning after my 12 hours was up.
When I called the old man the next morning and told him what I’d done he paused and then said, “ I figured this would happen, get it taken care of and get your [bleep] together, I hope you learn something from this”.
I did as he advised although it cost me a lot of money, time, and embarrassment. I haven’t been back since and think it was probably one of my more constructive learning experiences in the grand scheme of things.
I was. Years ago. In a GESTAPO jail with a guided tour. At that time the building was occupied by the local police. They showed us the cells in the basement. Afterwards we had some bad feelings.
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